Scientists decipher ancient origins of the Euphrates River

Uruk, the world’s first metropolis and the birthplace of written language, was nourished by the Euphrates River, as was Babylon, ancient ​Mesopotamia’s grandest city. The fertile plain between the Euphrates and its companion waterway, the Tigris River, was one of humankind’s cradles of civilization.

Researchers now have ‌deciphered how the Euphrates first formed, looking much further back in time than the era of these great urban centers that arose mere millennia ago. Guided by seismic images...